When working at an escape room, one starts to learn the lingo of the job. Most of these words are common among escape room businesses, while others are unique just to us. Here are everyday words we use at Timed Out:
Escape Room Terms
Briefing: a backstory to the room people will be escaping from; explains the objective of the room; usually in the form of a video or by mouth from a game master
Game master: the all-seeing eye; the one who holds all wisdom; the one that knows all the answers
Linear: the design of a room in which one puzzle leads to another to another etc; a very ordered room
Non-Linear: the design of a room in which some puzzles do not have a particular order of solving them; puzzles are spread out throughout gameplay
Nudge: a polite way game masters use to tell escapers they need help; “Do you need a nudge with that puzzle?”
Red Herring: an object in the escape room that does not have to do with solving any puzzles or the room itself; there to distract customers from the real information
Reset: to clean up the escape room by making sure everything is in its place; the dreadful part of any game masters’ job
Sledgehammer: to know 2 or 3 of the numbers/letters in a code and guessing the rest of it; a smart tactic used by expert escapees
Transmit: to talk to the people in a room through speakers instead of writing a clue; usually happens when someone is breaking a puzzle or messing with something they shouldn’t be
Trigger: to electronically set off a puzzle once correctly solved; happens behind the scenes
Waivers: a contract signed by the customer in order to play in an escape room; requests the right of your 401Ks and your first born, you know normal contract stuff*
*this is a joke in case you missed it*
We hope you learned something new about escape rooms. Come visit us at Timed Out!!